Description

Henry E Clifford, 1889-1890. 3-storey and part basement, rectangular plan School Board school with Gibbsian details and retaining original glazing. Red bull-faced sandstone with ashlar dressings, 1st floor cill course (as band to principal elevation), partial cill course to 2nd floor, wallhead lintel band and stone bracketed eaves.

E (WASHINGTON STREET) ELEVATION: 9-bay elevation (bays grouped 2-5-2) with roll-moulded arrises and keystones to ground floor windows, roll-moulded and architraved windows with banding, keystone and cornice at 1st floor, over cill band inscribed 'Washington Street - School Board of Glasgow - Public School'. Stone porch in bay to left of centre bay group with pedimented stone-mullioned bipartite window and lintel inscribed 'Infants'. Regular fenestration in remaining bays.

N AND S ELEVATIONS: side elevations with tall, advanced pedimented doorways in bays to penultimate E, recessed doors under multi-pane fanlights and keystone breaking into pediment over lintels inscribed 'Boys' and 'Girls' respectively. Bipartite stair windows above, near-regular fenestration in 4 bays to W and bay to E, with expanse of blank wallplane to outer E.

W (CLYDE STREET) ELEVATION: 8-bay elevation with near-regular fenestration, blank bays to outer left at ground and 1st floor. Basement with play-shelter of 3 square-headed openings to right, door and 3 windows to left.

Glazing patterns tiered by floor, timber sash and case windows: ground floor with 4-pane glazing, 1st floor with stylised glazing to upper sash, 2nd floor with 3-pane upper sash. Grey slate roof to piended roof with curtailed leaded 'Munn's' ventilators as ridge finials at head of piends, and to centre ridge. Stone wallhead stack.

INTERIOR: well-detailed decorative scheme in place; tripartite arrangement running E-W. Former infants school classrooms to E front, further classrooms to W front, entrances and staircases to centre of N and S entrance elevations, central galleried toplit hall with keystoned round arches to 2nd floor gallery, pilasters to 1st floor,

decorative iron railings to well and shield ends to supporting metal joists. Sections of boarded dado and occasional keystoned archway.

BOUNDARY WALLS, GATEPIERS, STEPS AND RAILINGS: coped red sandstone dwarf walls to school perimeter with original iron railings and square section sandstone gatepiers, those to main pedestrian gates with domed caps. Stone steps to changing levels of falling ground by W elevation, with railings.

Statement of Interest

Converted from school to Arts Centre in late 1970s. The Washington Street school provides effective and suitable context to the neighbouring warehouse. The retention of tiered glazing patterns and railings adds further to its overall impact.

External Links

• Historic Environment Scotland Listing
• Wikidata Q77772719

External links are from the relevant listing authority and, where applicable, Wikidata. Wikidata IDs may be related buildings as well as this specific building. If you want to add or update a link, you will need to do so by editing the Wikidata entry.

Recommended Books

• 
  Somerset: North and Bristol: The Buildings of England (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Lancashire: Liverpool and the South-West (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Essex: Buildings of England Series (Buildings of England) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Cork: City and County (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of Ireland)
• 
  Department for Communities Listed Historic Buildings of Northern Ireland: Information Guide for the 2nd Survey of Historic Buildings
• 
  Period Property Manual (New Ed)